


this girl's a silhouette, can't you see?

by electrumqueen



Category: Sucker Punch (2011), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Gen, character fusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-01
Updated: 2011-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-21 08:44:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/223258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electrumqueen/pseuds/electrumqueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She spends her days trying to be someone else, removed (<i>Sweetpea,</i> she thinks; Emma is not for in here).</p>
            </blockquote>





	this girl's a silhouette, can't you see?

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers through _Sucker Punch_ , no real spoilers for _First Class_ (beyond Emma's powers).
> 
> Warnings for implied sexual assault/violence/lobotomies/corrupt + abusive mental institutions + ableism wrt mental illness (both internalized and institutional), though nothing as bad as _Sucker Punch_.

  
Her name on the form is _Frost, Emma_. She stares at it for a long moment, her father's spidery hand, blue ink on white paper, like a tattoo. Their hands on her are too hot, too clammy. Their thoughts clamour through her mind _; nice ass, I wonder if she's a screamer, great tits, I bet she is._

She is unaccustomed to people acting on their thoughts, but she is not. Unprepared. She knew this would be the endgame of all these voices in her head, her father's cool detached stare.

"Welcome to Lennox House," the orderly on her right sneers, "we'll have a good time, you and I. _Sweetpea_."

She tries to claw his eyes out. It is not, she thinks, an auspicious start.

\--

She spends her days trying to be someone else, removed ( _Sweetpea_ , she thinks; Emma is not for in here). All the girls here are chaotic, screaming in their minds. Dr. Gorski tries to help them but she can't see what Emma can, can't see all the furious histories, black clouds hanging over everything they do.

She sits with a girl with short hair who reminds her of her baby sister, whispers, _it's going to be all right_ into the crevices of her mind because this girl, (they call her Rocket; she never sits still and lets them have her) is someone who needs her, someone who would be vibrant and brilliant and beautiful without this place.

She stands through therapy and tries, every day, to block out the world. (She succeeds only in travelling into other people's; into Rocket's, tired and furious, into Dr. Gorski's, where she is so weary Sweetpea would like to say, _we understand that you are doing your best._ )

She loses track of the days. She is unaware of how long she has been there when Babydoll arrives.

\--

She and Babydoll don't talk to each other. Baby is more popular than Sweetpea, for now; she's fresh blood and Sweetpea is glad but not really. It doesn't matter who is feeling the pain because pain is a magnet; pain is what pulls Sweetpea into their minds.

Baby thinks about dancing.

(Emma took lessons. Her father was-- is-- upper class and nouveau-riche and everything that implies his children should be susceptible to gross displays of wealth.

Emma learned ballet. Ballet is nothing like Baby's head.)

\--

Sweetpea thinks she should stop finding her way into Baby's head but it is the most vibrant mind she has ever seen; more vibrant even than Rocket's. Baby is not crazy, not like the rest of them (Emma isn’t, but she thinks Sweetpea was made to be broken, made to protect Emma so that she could come out safe); her mind is ordered to a certain degree, structured and illustrated with stories and dreams.

Baby says, "I have a plan."

Sweetpea thinks about saying, "I saw the old man in your head," but instead she says, "don't ever write a check with your mouth you can't cash with your ass.”

Baby covers her mouth, laughs, eyelashes fluttering. "You're not like the others," she says.

Emma runs her fingers through her hair; says, "Show me what you've got."

\--

She cannot keep out of Baby's mind, through all of the plan; _map, fire, knife, key_. It seems like a good plan; solid, reasonable. (Baby is the sane one, that is. Baby is the one who has not spent what feels like forever with chaos running through her brain. Baby is the oasis in the desert. Baby is someone both Sweetpea and Emma feel they should trust.)

She hates watching Baby fuck them. Instead she slips into the back of Baby's mind and helps her fight monsters, whispers _, I will always be by your side._

\--

They destroy Rocket and Sweetpea screams so loud Emma hears it, feels it, screams too.

She reaches for Rocket's mind but there is nothing there. It is dull and blank and empty and nothing like her friend.

She thinks, _I should have been there, I should have held your hand._

Rocket can no longer smile.

\--

Sweetpea curls into the back of Baby's mind. After all, this is where they are invincible. Nobody can touch her if she is here.

The warriors in Baby's mind throw her into walls and she gets up, undamaged, beautiful. She feels like she is wrapped in diamond.

Nobody else matters.

The lower level of Baby's mind is a brothel and Sweetpea walks through it, impassive, with her eyes on them. _Thanks for making it obvious, Baby,_ she almost says, but she clicks her heels instead.

In the fantasy she wears battle armour that is like the clothes Baby had her dancing in.

She feels powerful despite her nakedness, perhaps because of it and thinks, _you might have something here._

\--

 _A sacrifice,_ Baby says. _I’m sorry._

Sweetpea says, _No. No. No._

In Baby's mind they are running away.

In reality, Baby is walking to the chair.

\--

Sweetpea runs, of course she does. When someone offers you a gift of such great value, you cannot refuse.

She gets out of the gates and reaches for the familiar warm strength of Baby's mind and says, "I’m okay," and shows her a world where she is, where there is a bus and the man Baby made up is looking after Sweetpea too.

She feels the icepick go in. The sound is enormous.

\--

They catch her, of course. She is sobbing outside the gates of Lennox House with the echoing silence of Baby’s mind chilling every part of hers and the orderlies come to breathe all over her, hands on her arms and chest and hips _, you've been a very bad girl._

"Get the fuck off me," Sweetpea snaps. She thinks of Baby, shakes her head. _Thank you._

She doesn't kill them. That would be too easy.

Instead, she shows them what it is like in Baby's head. Then she locks the door.

\--

Emma Frost presses her fingers to her lips, and walks away.

(She is thinking of Babydoll. Her body is shining, translucent.

Nobody can touch her. Not even in her head.)

  
\--


End file.
